Senior Design Manager @ IBM. Designing UX for agentic-AI orchestration & building systems that make AI work for people.

Sam Pattnaik Official: Instagram | Linktree

👋🏽 About Me

Recognition

Outside of Design

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I believe the next era of design is about orchestrating intelligence - connecting people, data, and AI in ways that amplify creativity, trust, and impact.

As a Senior Design Manager at IBM, I lead UX for agentic-AI orchestration, focusing on how design shapes the relationship between humans and intelligent systems. My work spans strategy to implementation — defining interaction models, building design systems, and aligning cross-disciplinary teams around clarity and impact.

I currently lead design for IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate, a multi-agent orchestration platform that enables no-code agent building, visual workflows, and open-protocol integration. Our Agent Builder, honored with iF and Red Dot Design Awards, reflects my passion for creating UX at the frontier of automation and human empowerment.

Outside work, I’m a photographer and lifelong learner who believes thoughtful design can make complex systems feel simple and that AI should work for people, not the other way around.

🤓 Why I Design Agentic AI

People make the culture, and culture makes design teams shine. Lately, trust in design management has eroded and some even say, “It’s a bad move to go into design management.”

I disagree. This is precisely when design leadership matters most.
If designers don’t feel cared for as humans, how can we expect them to care for the users they design for?

My philosophy centers on three tenets:

1️⃣ People & Belonging
Designers need to feel part of something meaningful. My role is to coach, support, and earn their trust. I don’t run weekly 1:1s for status updates. I start with one question: “What’s on your mind?” and I listen.

2️⃣ Clarity & Expectations
Designers live in ambiguity daily. My job is to remove it where it shouldn’t exist — in vision, strategy, and expectations.

3️⃣ Accountability
Belonging and clarity mean nothing without ownership. Teams thrive with high standards and trust. The buck stops with me. If I don’t enable my team to perform at their best, I’ve failed my job.

📋 My Management Philosophy

👋 Connect on LinkedIn

🧠 My Work

🤖 AI Agent Builder | IBM watsonx Orchestrate

🧑🏽‍🎨 Portfolio (Coming soon)

💼 Resume

🏆 iF Design Award Winner 2025

🎖️ Red Dot Design Award Winner 2025

👨🏽‍🏫 US Patent Inventor - US11455846B2

📸 Photography - Instagram

📸 Photography - 500px Gallery

Sam Pattnaik

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